---
title: That would be the worst thing that could happen--Oh! the cloth is ch… — Andersen's Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: That would be the worst thing that could happen--Oh! the cloth is charming,” said he, aloud. Who acts: That, worst thing, thing. A sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Emperor's New Clothes, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Emperor's New Clothes, sentence 55

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That would be the worst thing that could happen--Oh! the cloth is charming,” said he, aloud.

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**Who acts:** That, worst thing, thing · **What happens:** be, happen, charm, say · **To what, where:** worst thing, cloth · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, The Emperor's New Clothes. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (That, worst thing, thing), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher.** This tree is Mova's own parse (the `en` model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg1597:2:55
# text = That would be the worst thing that could happen--Oh! the cloth is charming,” said he, aloud.
1	That	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	6	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
3	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	cop	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	worst	bad	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	6	amod	_	_
6	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
7	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	9	nsubj	_	_
8	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	happen	happen	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	Oh	oh	INTJ	UH	_	9	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	cloth	cloth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl:unmarked	_	_
15	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	charming	charm	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	19	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	16	punct	_	_
19	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
22	aloud	aloud	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	19	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | would | That | the worst thing |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **happen** | could | the worst thing | the cloth |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **charm** | present · progressive | the worst thing |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | past | thing |  |  |  |  | aloud *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |

<!-- .note -->
One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

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**Text:** «Andersen's Fairy Tales» by H. C. Andersen, Project Gutenberg book 1597 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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